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Oil Prices Settle at $77 a Barrel, This Time
Caused By Israeli Attacks on Lebanon

I haven't noticed any threatening statements by Bush
or Rice after that. It seems that the Israelis are the ones who are doing it
this time. Crude oil traders need a political event like war or the threat
of war to increase the prices of oil to the level they want. Then, they
sell, reaping billions of dollars.

Diplomacy works after that to cool things down. So,
oil prices come down. When they are low enough for them, they buy huge
quantities of crude oil.

They wait to the following political incident that the
beneficiaries influence, then prices increase, then they sell, and so on and
so forth.

The evidence shows that we're living in an era in
which the oil industry dominates the global economy, have agents who launch
wars and manufacture instability, in order to allow the beneficiaries of the
industry to reap billions of dollars each time there is a price increase
like this.

The Israeli assassinations, raids, sanctions,
financial strangulation of Gaza Strip aimed at triggering a Palestinian
reaction. When this finally happened (the soldier capture), it was used by
Israelis to launch a campaign of death and destruction destabilizing the
Palestinian government and literally starving the Palestinian people.

When Hizbullah made its similar move (the two-soldier
capture), it was also used by Israelis to launch the current war of death
and destruction on the entire country of Lebanon.

Who knows, maybe the plan of the oil industry and its
beneficiaries turn to be the occupation of Iran. In this case, we've just
seen the skirmishes of the coming nightmarish war.

***

Oil Prices Settle at $77 a Barrel

By BRAD FOSS AP Business Writer

Jul 14, 2006, 9:42 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) --

The price of oil briefly surpassed $78 a barrel Friday
and finished 4 percent higher for the week after Israeli terrorist attacks
against Lebanon stoked fears of a wider Middle East conflict and possible
oil-supply disruption.

The run-up in oil raised concerns about inflation and
the economy at large, sending stock prices tumbling. OPEC tried to reassure
the market by stressing its commitment to "order and stability," but at the
same time said it "has no influence" over the geopolitical turmoil
underlying today's volatility.

Because oil accounts for more than 50 percent of the
cost of gasoline, U.S. pump prices, now averaging $2.96 a gallon nationwide,
are likely to climb some more, analysts said.

On Friday, light sweet crude for August delivery on
the New York Mercantile Exchange soared as high as a record $78.40 a barrel
in electronic trading before settling at a record $77.03, an increase of 33
cents from Thursday's record close.

Gasoline futures rose by 2.36 cents to settle at
$2.3249 a gallon - the highest level since late September of last year, when
U.S. refinery output was sharply curtailed by hurricane damage.

In London, Brent crude futures gained 58 cents to
settle at $77.27 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

"We've reached a level where we've put all the scare
premium into the market that we can," said James Cordier, president of
Liberty Trading in Tampa, Fla. "At this point, we have to have a disruption
to move smartly higher from here."

Cordier said that while fuel demand in the U.S. is
still strong, rising energy costs appear to be dampening consumer spending
in other areas and that could eventually slow the economy enough to help
cool energy prices.

But there won't be any significant decline until at
least the end of the summer, and that assumes that the Gulf Coast sustains
no serious hurricane damage this year.

Israel widened its offensive on Lebanon on Friday,
with fighter bombers blasting the airport for a second day and cutting off
the main highway to Syria. Hezbollah has fired more than 100 rockets into
Israel. More than 80 people have died, most in Lebanon, in three days of
violence sparked by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah
militants.

While Israel and Lebanon are not major oil suppliers,
the fear is that the conflict could expand in the region, which produces
nearly a third the world's oil and has almost two-thirds of its untapped
reserves.

Iran has threatened to use oil as a weapon if the
United Nations invokes sanctions in its dispute with Tehran over its nuclear
program. While OPEC's No. 2 supplier has not raised the issue of withholding
oil from the market in a sign of solidarity with Hezbollah, the possibility
- while deemed unlikely - weighs on the market's psychology, analysts said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
issued a statement in which it blamed geopolitical factors beyond its
control for the recent price volatility. The group emphasized that the
market is "well-supplied with crude."

Indeed, oil prices did not arrive at the doorstep of
$80 a barrel overnight. The combination of rising global demand, limited
excess production capacity and concerns about supply interruptions from
Nigeria to the Gulf of Mexico have all played a part, analysts said. So,
too, has the influx of billions of dollars into oil markets in recent years
by hedge funds and other financial institutions angling for profits amid
global instability.

Brent for August delivery at London's ICE Futures
exchange, which expires at the close of trading Friday, jumped as high as
$78.03, but then fell back to $77.46, up 77 cents.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell less
than a penny to settle at $2.076 a gallon and natural gas futures advanced
21.8 cents to settle at $6.347 per 1,000 cubic feet.